In 2020, the Pope called on Catholics to divest from fossil fuel companies.
Now, the leader of the Catholic Church has gone further.
The world must rapidly ditch fossil fuels and end “the senseless war against creation”, Pope Francis said on Thursday(25 May 2023), in a fresh plea over climate change that called on people to repent for their “ecological sins.”
Francis has made the protection of the environment a cornerstone of his pontificate, noting in his landmark 2015 “Laudato Si” (Praised Be) encyclical that the planet was “beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth.”
In a message for the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, he said a UN climate summit meeting in Dubai on Nov. 30-Dec.12 “must listen to science and institute a rapid and equitable transition to end the era of fossil fuel.”
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In other coverage, Pope Francis ahead of COP28: “Stop the ‘madness’ of the ‘fossil fuel era’.”